the six deaths of terra
by P0ST
Summary: in a land of endless cold, terra learns that she must become the angel of death for each of the titans' souls
1. 1 the six deaths of terra

_**In Christmas of '04, while I was rolling headlong into Act Two of the train wreck 'These Black Eyes', I made the decision to write the end-all/be-all of Teen Titans angst fics. I was never a fan of the typical Terra-BB-Raven Triangular emo fests, and somehow I felt that the only way to accept an absurd world where such polynumerous abominations exist would be to Frankestein a putrid wrist-slasher of my own. The result, was 'the six deaths of terra'--not to be confused with Sora's work, the Six Deaths of Alex, which was written much later and far more sexily than this melodramatic Lifetime drivel. For those who care to give a rat's rectum about the plot, this story was written long before Season Five of Teen Titans was aired. So please, if you will, accept a universe where 'Things Change' never transpired.**__**﻿ **__**I also would like to take the time to apologize for the conniption fits to be had for my redonkulous use of center-page-alignment and quasi poetic sentence fragments. You have been (castrated) warned.**_

**Original Stats: (First Publish Date: 12.22.04) (Last Publish Date: 12.22.4) (Chapters: 1) (Words: 14, 040) (Reviews: 82)**

**Terra had it coming. Dayum chicken legs.**

* * *

"RRRRAAAAUGH!!"

Yellow hands.

Yellow eyes.

Buildings explode into shrapnel from beneath.

Chunks of earth and concrete swirl in the air, branch outwards, and trail the heels of screaming masses in the streets.

Citizens scream and run for their life.

Missiles of hardened dirt explode among them.

Bodies fly and land bloodily on the asphalt.

Robotic henchmen trample over them.

Slade's army stomps after the innocent lives in a phalanx.

They raise pistols high and fire indiscriminately.

Holes form in the backs of men, women, and children in the rear.

Red holes.

Bodies fall to the street like meat rain.

And still, their bodies are pelted by waves of heat and burning rocks.

She floats above the surging panic on a vibrating plateau of stone.

Her arms dangling by her side.

Wrapped in corpse-cloth.

She clenches yellow fists.

She looks up.

A red horizon slashes across her vision.

Then turns cold.

Her eyes turn back to blue and widen.

A belated gasp comes out of her lips.

Her hair rises up.

**FLASH!!**

Terra stands frozen in stone.

Inside a lonely cavern.

Solitary.

Cold.

Her eyes are clear orbs of smooth granite.

Her mouth hangs open.

_It is a strange feeling. _

_Or can it really be called 'feeling'?_

_I once thought I knew what this would feel like. _

_And yet……_

_I can't seem to come to a stop here._

_I can't stop rattling around._

**CRAAACK!! **

"**AAAAUGH!!" Cyborg falls into the crevice of the shattered warehouse floor.**

**He fires an extended, grappling hand up to clamp onto the broken ledge.**

**He loses his grip.**

**He's swallowed in darkness.**

**FLASH!!**

Her shoulders rest as marble effigies of anorexia.

Gangly limbs convulsed outwards.

Still.

Worn slightly at the edges with the archaic heat of some stifled volcano.

_I can't see. _

_And yet._

_I know everything that passes in front of me._

_I know it's there. _

_But I can't feel it._

_Is this……_

_Is this what it means to be on the other side?_

"**STARFIRE!!"**

**THWACK!! **

**A huge boulder shatters into the back of the Tamaranian girl.**

**The breath leaves her as she plummets like a ragdoll.**

**Sailing into the rocky surf of the bayside below.**

**Robin screams.**

**FLASH!!**

Her thin arms end in gnarled gloves.

Fingers curling in endless pain.

Trying their vain best to stretch out.

To welcome or to accept.

Stone bandage strands scream out from her limbs in every direction.

_I…… _

_I don't know………_

_Everything……_

_Everything is gone……_

_And I almost had it._

"**What did we ever do to make you hate us so much?!" Robin growls. **

**She sneers back. "You were born."**

**RUMMMMMBLE!!**

**Robin gasps as stones rise up and pelt the breath out of him.**

**FLASH!!**

Her breasts are hugged by a thin chest plate eating into her skin.

Metal strips fuse into her torso and abdomen.

Like tiny, serrated teeth giggling into her arteries forever.

_I never…… _

_I never had it._

_Did I?_

_Did I truly…… _

_Did I truly have anything?_

_Even when the Titans gave it to me, it wasn't enough._

_And Slade……_

"**Augh!!" Raven struggles.**

**Gasping.**

**The four eyes reshaping back into two. **

**Terra's eyes narrow.**

**Raven's mouth opens one last time.**

**Terra clenches her fist….and buries the dark girl in mud.**

**Bubbles rise to the surface…and disappear.**

**FLASH!!**

Feet melt into the earth.

The toes curled beneath stone boots.

Everything is whole and everything is wanting to be shattered apart.

Her head is tilted to the ceiling.

To a sky hidden by the Earth.

The Earth….

_I'm not really here. _

_I'm not really here._

_I'm not………_

_I'm not real._

"**Nnnngh…….," Beast Boy struggles. **

**A pair of boots settle over him.**

**He looks up. **

**He gasps.**

"**Terra……"**

"…………**," she glares down.**

**He reaches for her.**

**She does nothing.**

**And Beast Boy falls into blackness…….**

**FLASH!!**

A statue stands in the center of a rocky cavern.

A statue in the shape of a screaming girl.

The Titans gather before her.

They pay their respects.

_No……_

They lay down a plaque at her feet.

_No……please……_

'Terra. A Teen Titan. A True Friend.'

_Please……Please……_

They turn their backs on her.

_I'm not real._

They walk away.

_I'm not real._

They leave.

_I'm not really here._

The statue calls out.

The statue has no voice.

The air has no breath.

It is cold.

It is cold…

It is cold…….

Forever.

Stone.

* * *

……the six deaths of terra……

* * *


	2. 2 spectre

﻿

The days.

The months.

The seasons.

The years.

They rain and snow and howl and sigh on the outside.

The cavern shivers on its own.

The statue inside.

Untouched.

Not even the penumbra of the sun and moon kiss their way in.

And dust sleeps thicker and thicker.

On her arms.

Her wrists.

Her spider strands of hair.

Glazed eyes.

Gaping mouth.

Helpless hands.

Reaching…

Reaching…..

Reaching…….

And somewhere.

Like the liquid laugh of dry ice.

A cold.

Cold.

Cold mist swarms invisibly at her feet.

* * *

_She doesn't feel the chains at first._

They are as much a part of her as her frozen skin.

But now……

Now……

For the first time, they pull on her.

They pull.

And they pull.

And it isn't until the chains are taut that…

"Nnngh……"

Her head breaks through the layer of stone.

Frozen dust fly off from her pale blonde hair.

She bends her skull forward.

She pants.

She panes.

__

She pants.

Eyes clenched shut.

Vapor coldly dancing forth.

Skin hairs shattering.

Sighing into thin air.

She pants once more.

And……

YANK!!

CL-CLINK!!

"NNGH!!"

She slumps forward and peels out of the statue.

Naked.

Pale all over.

TH-THRUMP!!

She falls on her knees before the plaque.

Icicles crackle beneath her.

She plants two blue hands into the stone floor beneath her.

She heaves.

Crystalline hair waves to the center of the globe.

Her teeth chatter.

Her skin erupts in course bumps all over.

Her nipples grow rock hard.

Hairs come to life on her neck and shrink into oblivion.

She shivers.

She shakes.

She gasps.

More mist.

Blue mist.

Everywhere.

Ice.

Ice…

Ice……

Her head rises.

Vapors and hair waving.

Blue eyes turning bluer.

Wavering.

Frost gathering around the lids.

With a quivering lip she gazes around.

The walls of the cavern are covered in blue crystal.

A soft down of white powder fills the corners.

Ice shards drip down from the ceiling.

The girl hugs herself.

Bony fingers gnarled around bonier shoulders.

Her lungs shudder.

More and more mist.

She struggles to stand up.

Her muscles shudder from top to bottom.

She collapses painfully on her chest.

"Nnngh!!"

The icy floor kisses her entire form…then digs daggers of frost in.

She winces.

She feels something rusty and dangling around her left ear.

Blinking, she raises a shaking hand.

Cl-Clink!!

Chains.

Her blue eyes narrow.

She fingers the links.

She shakes.

Vapor……

"Ch-Ch-Chains………"

Her eyes narrow.

Frosted-white-and-blue-eyebrows.

And……

Cl-Clink.

Cl-CLINK!!

Her eyes explode.

YANK!!

"AUGH!!"

_She's dragged across the icy floor._

_Metal shards rip through her skin and softly exit the other side._

There is pain.

But no blood.

No open wound.

Just……

Pain.

Cold.

She shudders.

YANK!!

"NNGH!!"

She is pulled up the rocky incline of the cabin.

Dragged through the soft powder.

Up craggy steps.

Ripping through her.

More pain.

No blood.

She shudders and grits crystalline teeth.

The chains pull.

The chains pull.

Colder.

Colder…

Colder……

She ascends into blue light.

A surface world.

_Mountains._

Valleys.

__

Streets.

Baysides.

Dilapidated buildings.

__

Cover in snow.

Flakes fall down continuously.

Lonely silence across the starless sky.

Endless black as far as the eyes can see.

No sky.

No sun.

No moon.

_Endless snow._

Endless cold.

Cold.

THWUMP!!

She falls into the snow.

Sprawled across the white powder.

__

Wincing.

Shivering.

The chains stop.

She half-dangles from them.

Her limbs shake and shiver.

She sits up.

Teeth practically cracking.

Frost trailing down her shoulders.

Blue spreading through her limbs and extremities.

Snow clinging to her legs.

Her waist.

Her nether regions.

Her fingers.

She hugs herself.

She hiccups.

A gasp.

A sob.

A sob…

A sob……

Silence.

………__

Two crunching sounds.

Two blue feet.

Pale skin and dead black hairs curling……

The girl looks up.

The Spectre stares down at her.

The Spectre is an old man.

Pale and naked.

Draped from his shoulders to his hips to his knees with throngs and throngs of chains.

Black, rusted chains.

His hair is a white eternity like that of the snow.

A frost-covered mustache dawns his upper lip.

His left eye is pale and lifeless.

His right eye is missing altogether.

A blue gash of darkness.

Peaking through the dangling chains and falling white flakes.

There is no emotion in his face.

__

No defining lines.

Just…

Blue cold.

The Spectre stands perfectly still.

She shivers.

He shuffles forward once.

The chains clink and clank along his person.

__

A puff of vapor leaves his lips:

"_Tara Markov?"_

Her eyes twitch.

Frost on the lashes.

Quivering lips.

"I……"

Her voice lingers like the crystalline vapors in the air.

The Spectre blinks once.

The chains hang still.

"I have come to kill you," he says.

The girl blinks.

_And somehow, she ignores the cold for once._

As her arms part from crossing her breasts and she embraces:

"How long did it take me to get here?"

He shakes his head.

"There is no time. There is no here."

Her blue eyes thin.

She looks past him at the white landscape.

_The shattered buildings._

The empty sky.

"I recognize……"

"What is it that you see?"

"Jump City……I think……"

"I have always wondered what you would see."

She blinks.

"For the longest time, I could not see anything at all."

A beat.

She lowers her lids.

"Then again……if there is no time………"

Silence.

She shudders.

"Is……Is this Hell?"

"Hell is a word," the Spectre quickly returns.

She takes a deep breath.

Chains rattle.

She reopens her eyes.

He stands beside her.

Gazing at what she is gazing at.

Seeing the same thing.

And yet.

Something else entirely.

"I hardly even remember what Jump City looks like," the Spectre says.

_She exhales._

Blue vapor.

It clouds the white horizon.

"_I am sitting at home," he says. "There's a fire before me. I cannot touch it for the life of me. My wife is playing the piano across the parlor. My two sons are playing with their train set that I got them last Christmas. And my daughter……my daughter isn't there. I suppose she doesn't deserve to be there yet."_

"I cannot touch them. I keep trying. But I cannot touch them."

The girl looks at him.

His left eye seems paler.

"I must finish it all. I must do what I came here to do. What I was summoned to do."

"You must kill me."

He nodded.

Silence………

She breathes.

"I……I cannot touch the City myself……"

A beat.

She runs a hand through frozen hair.

"I cannot touch anything……"

Her throat swallows nothing.

She shudders and looks painfully at him.

"Please……do your job……"

He stares at her.

His missing eyes seems to shimmer.

"I can't……"

A frozen breath escapes her.

He sighs: "You have a job to do yourself, Tara. I cannot finish my job until you finish yours. The circle must be full and complete."

_She exhales: "But……But what is m-my job?"_

"The same as mine, Tara. You are a Reaper."

She blinks.

He gestures with a frozen-blue arm. "Once……when we could feel……when we could see…………we both made oaths. We dabbled in the Cold in the land of the Warm. When we were yet alive, we promised to do any and all things possible to seek the end of other lives around us. It does not matter if we were successful in our murderous endeavors or not. The fact is, we committed ourselves to destruction. We pursued perfect oblivion of other souls. We pursued their oblivion……without resolving ourselves among them. The pact was never broken. Destruction lives beyond words."

The girl curls her knuckles in the snow.

Her palms sting from the cold.

Lips are already turning blue across her face.

"Do you know whom your job entails, Tara?"

"_The Titans……," she murmurs._

The Spectre nods. "You are the Reaper of the Titans. I am the Reaper of you. Do your job. Then I shall do my job. Our purposes will be fulfilled. We will finally be able to sleep."

"_Sleep……," the girl closes her eyes and sighs. "Sleep. I so do want to……sleep."_

_A beat._

She shudders.

Crystal tears leak forth from her eyes.

"But……B-But……"

She chokes.

She looks up at the Spectre, glistening all over.

"I-I do not want to kill the Titans. I do not want to k-kill my friends."

"Tara……dear child………………you already have."

She gasps.

And somewhere in the frozen sensation entering her dry mouth.

She understands.

Her eyes narrow in a melancholy melting.

Her limbs fall limp.

Cl-Cl-Clink!!

_The Spectre peels a string of rusted chains from his person._

They dangle coldly before her.

"Here……take these……"

He tosses them at her.

She holds two arms out.

The links drape over her wrists.

__

She shivers from the touch.

Touch……

"Wh-What……?" she breathes.

"_Take them to the Titans. Each and every Titan."_

She looks up.

Eyes liquidy.

"Wh-Where will I know to go?"

"Fate will take you to where the links culminate," the Specture points.

The world behind him turns blacker.

The snow becomes more frozen.

"_They are connected to every soul that there ever was or ever will be."_

"I……I don't believe it."

"You do not have to. You must merely do your job."

"I understand……"

"Good, Tara. Go forth. Go forth……to sleep……"

"To sleep…"

She stands up.

She hugs the chains to her naked chest.

She steps forward, dragging the chains attached to her.

Wincing, dragging, shuffling.

The Spectre watches her, turns, and disappears.

The girl marches forward.

On the blackening horizon, she spots a huge Tower.

The shape of a 'T'.

The leftover laugh of something warm.

Gone.

"…………"__

Vapors trail her.

And disappear like her hair.


	3. 3 victor stone

﻿

A year passes in the cavern.

Two years.

Dust settles high on the floor.

Refuse from wandering animals gathers in the corner.

The statue rests still in the center.

The plaque still whispers its words at the girl's feet.

Her arms remain stretched out.

Her mouth stands ajar.

And in the corners of her eyes—as the days wear on—the first of many cracks starts to show.

* * *

_She walks forward._

Carving through black oblivion.

Carrying the chains.

_Eyes set and firm._

Vapor pouring out of her nostrils.

A thick black soup with blue waves.

And a chaos beyond churns louder and louder.

Laced with the mischievous peak show of warmth.

Untouchable.

__

But ear-shattering.

"_All hail Brother Blood."_

"All hail Brother Blood."

"_**All hail Brother Blood."**_

"_**All hail Brother Blood."**_

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!"

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!"

FLASH!!

Cyborg marches firmly down a hallway of black stone.

Scars and scrapes stretch across his metal features.

His twenty-one year old face is a frozen frown.

His human eye glares.

Something is blinking in his left arm.

In cadence to his heavy steps.

The chanting voices throb down the hallway.

Haunting.

In demonic unison.

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!!"

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!!"

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!!'

Far beyond is the wide-mouthed exit of the hallway.

A red aura drips in with torchlight.

Cyborg marches forward.

His fists clench.

Voices squabble electronically forth from his built-in communicator.

Brother Blood's got Raven! He's going to attempt a sacrifice!!

Dude! No way!! What's he want with her?!

Isn't it obvious?? The Church of Blood worships Trigon. They think by slaying her, they can bring her demon father into this realm!!

No!! We must save her!! Cyborg?! Cyborg?! Where is Cyborg?!

Beats me, Star. Nightwing? I think you saw him last.

Cyborg?? Cyborg, come in!!

Cyborg! Respond! That's an order!

Cyborg, whatever you're doing….don't go in that chamber alone!! We can buy some time for Raven!! Wait for Changeling, Starfire, and I to join you--

Cyborg grits his teeth.

He flicks a wrist.

Click.

The communicator shuts off.

He approaches the mouth of the tunnel.

Two guards in crimson robes turn and see them.

"Hey!!"

"Heretic!!"

"Get him!!"

Cyborg merely raises his titanium fist--

WHACK!!

He slams the first guard's face in.

The man's nose splits in two.

The second dives at him.

"RAAAUGH!!"

Cyborg pivots and slams his fist into the man's gut.

CR-CR-CRACK!!

His ribs shatter internally.

"SNKKK-KKKT!!"

Cyborg tosses him bloodily to the floor.

He flicks his wrist.

KL-KL-KL-KL-KLAK!!

A sonic cannon forms in its place.

Cyborg takes a step out into the open.

A sea of chanting, red-robed forms fill a huge, stone amphitheater built into the earth.

In the center is a round stage surrounded by a bubbling pool of blood.

A gray-haired man with an inhuman skull crowned on his head stands in the center.

Behind him—sitting dazedly in a chair on the edge of a blood pool—Raven rests.

Helpless.

Bound.

The gray man raises his arms.

He shouts: "BEHOLD!! THE GREAT MOTHER OF OUR LORD!!"

The robed figures bow in reverence.

Brother Blood pants maniacally.

He gestures and yells: "WITH THE FINAL SACRIFICE, SHE SHALL BRING PURITY TO THE WORLD!! I SHALL LEAD THE LEGIONS OF EARTH UNDER OUR GOD!! I SHALL BRIDGE THE SPIRIT OF THE DEAD WITH THE WARMTH OF THE BLEEDING!!"

"ALL HAIL BROTHER BLOOD!!"

"YES!! YES!!"

The gray man convulses insanely.

His voice echoes throughout the chamber.

"LET THE CLEANSING OF THE EARTH BEGIN!!"

The robed church body all exhale as one.

A red mist fills the air.

The blood pools bubble.

Raven groans, drugged.

Brother Blood twirls about from the center of the cavern.

His graying eyes settle on a figure.

A titanium figure.

He gasps.

Cyborg frowns.

He aims his sonic cannon out.

And…..

**ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!**

A blue stream of sonic energy throttles forward towards the center.

Twenty rows of robed skulls explode into red mist from the intensity of the blast.

Bodies collapse.

Bodies spin.

Voices shout.

"RAAAAAAAUGH!!" Cyborg charges forward.

"SEIZE THE HERETIC!!" Broth Blood points a gnarled finger through the chaos.

Robed figures leap on the android.

Cyborg grits his teeth and bats them away with bone-crushing arms.

More and more acolytes pounce on Cyborg.

Daggers and fingernails.

The young man's dark skin splits into red streaks in a dozen places.

He spits out blood, lets out a shout, and fires off the thrusters in his feet.

**THWOOOOFT!!**

Bodies are thrown every which way as he lifts up, nearly touches the ceiling, and sails down.

Brother Blood steps back just in time.

**CRUNCH!!**

Cyborg lands on the center of the ampitheatre.

He crouches, recovers, and stands up straight.

Teeth gritting…he aims his sonic cannon straight into the old man's face--

TH-THWISH!!

Brother Blood acrobatically spins and shoves two magically charged fingers into the cannon's structure.

CRAA-AACK!!

"AUGH!!" Cyborg cries out and steps backwards, his right cannon falling apart.

Brother Blood grins, snarls, summons up red energy in his hands, and launches them at the android's body.

FLASH!!

Cyborg dives out of the way.

The red bolts strike the ground behind him, shattering the stone asunder.

Cyborg jumps up to his feet and swings his left fist.

Brother Blood ducks and parries.

Cyborg takes the blow and kicks Brother Blood back.

The Titan and the cult leader engage in a free-for-all battle of titanium fists, spinning kicks, sparkling dives, and red bolts.

The crowd of robed figures shout and cheer and chant exaltations to their leader.

Pale arms pump forth from robed figures.

Red.

Scarlet.

_She emerges from them._

Naked and cold blue.

Dragging chains and holding a fresh, rusted pair hanging over her thin arms.

With a quivering lip and a breath of vapor……she stares forlornly at the battle between the two combatants.

"Nnngh!!" Cyborg charges Brother Blood.

Brother Blood braces himself.

His eyes shimmer crimson.

And….

**FLASH!!**

A bolt of red shoots out explosively into Cyborg's chest.

ZZZZTTT!!

"AUGH!!" the android Titan stumbles back.

A huge gash has formed in his chest.

Leaking sparks and wiring.

He pants, half slumping to his knees.

Brother Blood stands victoriously before him.

Fingers dancing with red sparks.

Teeth barred and pale.

Raven sits in the chair behind the center of the ampitheatre.

Bound.

Groaning.

Violet eyes barely open up.

She looks at Cyborg tiredly.

She mutters: "Get away….get away….my father is being summoned….get away…."

Cyborg pants….pants….pants….pants….

Dying.

_"………………"_

She stares sadly.

Her hair hangs blonde turning silver…

Her shoulders shake.

She cringes.

Teeth showing.

Lips blue.

Eyes leaking……leaking……

Her arms move.

Blurring through the red robes around her.

Twirling cold rust in the cavern's air.

Swishing……Twirling……

The girl chokes.

Her wrist flicks forward.

The chain sails outward from her grasp.

It flies.

It sails into Cyborg's body.

And disappears.

The android twitches.

His human eye narrows.

His electrical circuits flare momentarily.

"Heh…heh…heh…..," Brother Blood slowly chuckles.

Cyborg struggles to stand up.

His right arm cannon dangles dead at his side, wires and conductive juices spilling out.

Blood seeps out of his dark lips.

Brother Blood marches towards him, waving red-sparking fingers.

"You cannot stop me, Cyborg. I have stolen your technology. I have stolen your talents. And now….I have stolen your friend. The girl is dangerous. She is a vessel. She must die to bring in our heavenly Lord. There is nothing you can do, Cyborg. Let the Church of Blood have its way."

Cyborg stood up.

Shaking.

The crowd of robed figures murmur.

_She watches._

Shivering.

"What??" Brother Blood smirks. "Going to fight the inevitable? You are outnumbered, Cyborg. Not just by me…but by all of the Lord's dedicated children. Who are you to resist me?"

"I am…..not resisting….you….," Cyborg shudders.

Raven blinks.

Brother Blood's eyes narrow.

"I am…..letting….the Church of Blood….have its way…."

"How? Just how are you doing the will of the Church?"

Cyborg looks up.

His red eye flares.

SWOOOOSH!!

He leaps up.

THWAP!!

He grabs Brother Blood with a right-hooking arm.

The cult leader gasps.

Cyborg grabs something from his titanium shell

A black shield generator.

With a flick of his wrist, he tosses it over at Raven's feet.

Cl-Cl-Clank!!

VROMMMM!!

A force field wraps around her and her chair protectively.

Raven gasps.

Cyborg snarls and presses a button in his left wrist.

The light blinks in his right eye faster.

His entire core lights up.

Cyborg says:

"I'm giving you one last sorry-ass sacrifice, PUNK!!"

Brother Blood stares wide-eyed at the flaming core of the android.

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-**WREEEEEEE!!**

"NOOOOOOOO!!"

Cyborg explodes.

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!**_

Blue flames erupt outward, sheering the flesh and muscle off of Brother Blood's bones.

The fountain of blue plasma shoots out among the entire church.

The crowds of robed figures flinch and scream.

_The girl blinks._

FLASH!!

Their robes fall to the ground…empty and smoldering.

And Cyborg's shell of a body—a metal case with black, charred bits hanging off it—collapses besides Brother Blood's skeleton.

ZZZZZT!!

The force field around Raven lasts through the explosion before gently shorting out.

The girl sits in her chair.

Dazed.

The sole survivor.

Mouth agape.

She gazes at the blackened center of the ampitheatre.

"Cyborg?"

Silence.

"Cyborg??"

Silence.

"…..V-Victor??"

_"………………," the girl stares._

She hugs her naked self.

He eyes fall to the floor.

And as three shadows run, fly, and dash in from the back of the cavern one minute too late…

Snow falls.

Snow falls in the cavern.

And everything turns black.

Except for the endless floor.

Snow settles.

Cold white and blue.

Cold……

Vapors rise.

Vapors fall.

The girl shudders.

Mist spreads forth from her lips.

And……

In the center.

The young man stands up.

His naked body a pure sheen of dark flesh.

Cold with condensation and spirit tears.

She looks up at him.

He turns around.

Chocolate eyes gazing across the landscape.

Frost slowly forms on his bald crown.

Flakes shimmer down past his eyes.

He scans the emptiness.

He starts to shiver.

He starts to shake.

And then……

He sees her.

__

"Cy-Cyborg……," she murmurs.

_He exhales._

"Somehow……," he says…a voice deep and throaty, "……I knew that I would be seeing you first."

She bites her lip.

He gazes behind him.

The faint shadow of Raven kneeling by the charred remains sigh into oblivion before him.

He reaches his hands towards the sight of three late heroes……but stops stretching when they too disappear.

And he's frozen.

__

Like a statue.

He breathes it all in.

As if he's been expecting it all along.

He says: "I guess……there is nobody to blame."

"I'm here to kill you."

"Huh??" he turns and looks at her. "What'd you say, Terra?"

"I said I'm here to kill you, Cyborg."

"…………are you now?"

He fights his shivering.

He rubs a cold hand across and even colder scalp.

"I can't say I didn't deserve it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. I just……don't know anymore……"

"As long as they get a longer lease on the warmth……," he murmurs.

A beat.

"Maybe……," he adds, shuddering. "Maybe they'll find out something I never got a chance to."

Silence.

He hangs his head with a sigh.

He shakes it.

"What am I saying? They won't find anything. They won't find anything at all. I'm not going back. And you……"

"……………," she looked at him pensively.

He gestures.

"You have a job to do."

"I don't want to do it."

"I know, Terra. I know."

_A beat._

She slowly steps towards him.

One naked step after another.

He watches her approach.

The snow becomes thicker.

__

The air colder.

The mist.

The mist………

"I must ask one thing……"

She stops.

"What is it?" she shudders.

His eyes curve.

"Did you ever want to kill me? At one time? When you were…warm?"

A beat.

She exhales: "Why else would I be here?"

_He nods._

"Good point, Terra. Good point."

He then pointed.

"Do me a favor."

"Am I not already?"

"Do me another favor, then."

"Okay……"

He gazes again into oblivion.

He says:

"When it comes to be their time…do not give them the opportunity to think. It's a little less painful that way."

"What is there to think about, Cyborg?"

Vapors come out from his lips.

"Another good point—"

But she touches him.

And he jerks.

_And the vapors stop coming out of his lips._

And……

He turns to stone.

Freezing over from the top to bottom with granite.

From her touch.

And.

He sleeps.

Forever.

She clenches her eyes shut.

She bites her lip.

Frost spreads outward from her lids and lashes.

And……

YANK!!

"AAAUGH!!" she falls back into the snow.

_THWUMP!!_

Rusted metal constricts around her naked neck and shoulders.

She winces.

And when she opens her eyes.

She gasps.

_More chains._

Heavier.

Collecting around her person.

She shudders.

She coldly looks at Cyborg's stone statue.

She looks at the added chains.

She closes her eyes.

And……

Falls backwards.

YANK!!

Through the darkness.

YANK!!

Spinning and spinning and spinning and--

YANK!!


	4. 4 koriand'r

﻿

Years later…

The dust in the cave gathers thicker.

In various spots, burn marks form from where wandering bums and homeless people take shelter in the cave at night, lighting fires for cooking measly meals or keeping warm.

Graffiti forms on the walls.

Various obscenities.

Some sad poetry or famous last words of lonely souls.

A few words are spray-painted on the cracking statue's legs, chest, and buttocks.

And yet she stands.

And yet she grows…

Colder.

Colder…

Colder…….

* * *

_The girl spins and spins and spins._

Tthrough the darkness.

Absolute cold.

No oxygen.

A vacuum.

Looming around her.

Invisible poles.

Invisible axes.

She clings to naked self.

The chains trail on all sides of her like comet tails.

And then.

_Pinpricks._

Tiny lights.

Spinning.

Spinning……

And a structure.

A metal structure.

Spiraling over the globe.

The huge, looming earth.

Terra Firma.

Explosions circling the structure.

Glistening, glinting……

She holds her breaths.

She plunges right in.

_**FLASH!!**_

"Titans!!" Nightwing shouts, dodging a purple starbolt as he swings beneath a metal rafter. "Take her out!!"

"HAAAAA!!" Blackfire shouts and flings blast after blast of burning, alien energy.

She wears a silver crown arching over her forehead.

Black lace trails from her body in a warrior's gown.

The purple starbolts scream through the bridge of the huge, orbiting space station.

Nightwing deflects a handful of them with his twirling staff while Changeling skirts and dodges them alternatingly as a panther and a snake.

"RAUGH!!" Blackfire spins, smirks, and launches a two-handed blast of purple.

FLASH!!

"AUGH!!" Nightwing falls back from the heavy blast.

Changeling pounces on Blackfire's back as a bear. "RGGHHH!!"

Blackfire needs only to bring her Tamaranian fist back and strongly deflect his attack.

WHAM!!

Changeling spins across the floor in elf form and collapses against a metal bulkhead besides the windows overlooking the spinning globe. "Nnngh…"

"Heh heh heh…," Blackfire chuckles. "You think you whelps can stop me?? The Justice League couldn't even stand a chance!! Now their puny Watchtower is mine!! You are not getting it back. Oh no…I need this."

"For what??" drones a bitter voice.

Blackfire stares across the expanse.

FWOOOSH!! Raven teleports in, decked in a flowing gown and hood of pale white.

Her eyes glow.

She raises two threatening hands and encases Blackfire's limbs in black telekinesis.

FLASH!!

"Nnngh!!" Blackfire struggles.

Raven interrogates: "You broke free from the Centauri prisons. You invaded Earth. You stole Kryptonite from Lexcorp's vaults. You attacked the Watchtower with aid from the Fearsome Five. For what?? It's just a matter of time before this station is reclaimed. Superman can't say unconscious forever."

"He can long enough…," Blackfire smirks and pulses purple energy through her eyes and arms. "…long enough for this station to serve as a beacon to summon the Psions to Earth!! This entire solar system will be space dust in a matter of HOURS!! RAAAAUGH!!"

FLASH!!

Purple energy explodes outward.

Raven loses her concentration. "Ughh!!"

"HAAAA!!" Blackfire fires a starbolt at the girl's feet.

CRASH!!

Raven flies back and slams into a bulkhead.

"Raven!!" Changeling shouts, rushing to her white figure.

"Heh heh heh heh….pathetic Titans," Blackfire sneers with blazing eyes. "There is nothing from this planet that can withstand the power that I NOW HOLD!!"

A voice growls from the distant corridor: "Perhaps not…."

"Huh??" Blackfire glances up.

SWOOOOOOSH-SMACK!!

Starfire slams into the villainess, her red hair trailing like a tail of flame.

Nightwing watches bruisedly as the two sisters wrestled and tumble their way through the air of the Watchtower's bridge.

He pants.

WHAM!!

Starfire rams Blackfire up against a metal bulkhead.

The two struggle.

Starfire leans her face in, snarling: "You are a treacherous shame to our family, sister. I shall not let you lead the brutal Psions to earth!! Eliminate the interstellar beacon at once!!"

"To eliminate the beacon….sister, you have to eliminate _me_," Blackfire grins.

Her crown fluctuates a magical purple.

Starfire gasps.

WHAM!!

Blackfire punches her across the face.

"Nnngh!!" Starfire floats back.

"RAAAAUGH!!" Blackfire throws herself on her.

The two Tamaranians plummet through the metal floor.

CRUNCH!!

Through the hallways in the decks below.

CR-CRUNCH!!

And into the large hangar bay beyond.

PLOP!!

The two land in the center of the hangar, forming a crater.

"Nngh!!" Starfire kicks her legs up, throwing Blackfire off of her.

Blackfire backflips like a ragdoll.

Starfire floats up and launches starbolt after starbolt at the airborne sibling.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!

Blackfire deflects all the energy blasts while sailing backwards.

She ends with her feet planted to a wall and a huge purple bolt launched at the redhead.

FLASH!!

POW!!

"UGH!!" Starfire recoils from the blast.

Blackfire smirks.

She kicks her legs off the wall.

Flies into Starfire.

Grabs her.

Growls.

Swings her across the hangar.

Starfire limply flies through the air, smashes into the parked Javelin-7, and rips out the other side with a sickening CRUNCH!!

Starfire's body tumbles to a stop on the floor, groaning.

Blackfire floats over and lands above her sister.

She smirks, kneels down, and hoists Starfire's head up by her flaming red hair.

Starfire gasps in pain.

"Sister…Sister….Sister….," Blackfire sneers. "You stick to these pathetic Terrans. Don't you see? You are a fallen god among dumb insects. These _animals_ will drag you down to your death. But you would choose that, wouldn't you? I was always the smart one. The better fighter. I knew that the universe was something to grab by the balls and force into submission. Heheheheheh….that just goes to show why I'm a queen of the Vegan system and you're nothing but some pathetic bimbo trying her best to be a hero."

Starfire struggles.

_Chains rattle._

Blue mist.

Cold air.

The girl emerges from the nearby wall of metal.

Shuddering.

Watching the confrontation with cold, blue eyes.

Starfire shakes in Blackfire's grasp.

She manages: "I am….loved here….on this planet. I was never loved in my own galaxy. I was never loved b-by you, treacherous s-sister!!"

"Awwww….poor widdle Star….," Blackfire sneers. "I'll be sure to give you plenty of loving…….but not until you're effectively a corpse…."

Starfire gasps.

Blackfire smiles and aims a starbolt point blanc at the redhead's skull. "Give my regards to the galactic well of souls…."

"Take my message first, bitch…," growls a voice from behind.

THWIIIIIISH!! A grappling hook shoots forward, wrapsaround Blackfire's neck, and pulls tight. THWIP!!

"SNKKKTTT!!" Blackfire chokes.

YANK!!

Nightwing pulls Blackfire harshly through the air.

_The girl coldly watches the evil Tamaranian drift past her._

Blackfire twirls and flies into Nightwing's fist.

WHUMP!!

She exhales and bends over.

Nightwing grits his teeth and slams his foot into her ribcage.

THWAP!!

Blackfire twitches, groaning in pain.

Nightwing flicks his wrist.

CRI-I-ICK!!

His metal staff extends.

He twirls it.

TH-TH-THWISH!!

He spins and uppercuts her fiercely with a spinning leap. "YAAAAUGH!!"

WHAM!!

Blackfire's head flies back.

Her body sails in reverse and slams into an electrical panel in the hangar wall.

CRACK!!

ZZZZZZTTTT!!

"AAAAAA-AAAAUGH!!"

Blackfire screams.

Her body smokes.

Her crown shorts out and cracks apart in a sizzling puff.

She slumps to the ground, moaning, silent…..

"…………..," Nightwing's shoulders heave as he frowns at the sight.

CL-CLACK!!

His staff falls to the hangar floor.

He exhales.

That did it, Nightwing!! The signal! It stopped!! Did you beat up Blackfire or what??

The dark-haired Titan merely utters into his communicator: "Everything's taken care of. I'll get back to you in a moment."

But--

"Nightwing out."

Click.

He immediately turns and rushes over to Starfire's side.

_The girl watches._

She slowly exhales and hugs her naked chest.

Mist travels down her pale-blue skin.

She shivers.

"Starfire??"

"Nnngh…," the redheaded alien groans in his arms.

Nightwing leans forward and takes his mask off.

Blue eyes gaze warmly at her.

"Kory? Kory…speak to me…."

"Dick….Dick…I….I do believe I am not in the condition to do any training exercises soon…."

He smiles.

He hugs her closely.

"You're all right. I was worried for a second."

She smiles and wraps his arms around his shoulders. "You had every reason to. The same as I did. The entire globe was at risk of Psionic invasion…."

He chuckles against her chest.

She parts them. "Dick??"

He smiles, a tear or two trailing down his cheek. "For once…you don't get it, Kory."

"I only care about you. Please….don't go toe to toe with someone as powerful as your sister all by yourself again. I almost lost you."

"I had to take care of her. She is my responsibility. She is my sister."

"Please….just be careful…I don't ever want to lose you…."

_"……………"_

The girl lets loose a shuddering breath.

She closes her eyes.

Blindly, she lifts a chain off her person.

She twirls it.

She bites her lip.

She tosses it……

The chain flies into Starfire's heart.

It disappears in a breath.

Cold mist spreading from her warm bosom like butterfly wings then sighing into oblivion.

Starfire takes a deep breath.

Her green eyes widen.

Something bright and purple glows against her face.

Nightwing's back is to it.

He stands up. "Come…let's meet up with Changeling and Raven and see what we can do about getting the Watchtower back into proper orbit so that we can contact Green Lantern and—"

"DICK!!" Starfire shouts as the purple glow increases. "WATCH OUT!!"

_The girl looks away._

Nightwing gasps as Starfire suddenly shoves the dark-haired Titan out of the way and--

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!

Starfire absorbs two streams of purple lasers.

SPLORCH!!

Her chest explodes from the impact, exposing her beating heart.

Green blood splatters hotly across the hangar bay floor.

"AAAUGH—SSNKKTTT!!"

THWUMP!!

Starfire falls wetly to the floor.

Nightwing gasps.

"**Heh heh heh heh heh……"**

Nightwing spins around.

A charred Blackfire is sitting up, her eyes glowing a hot purple from emitting the laser beams.

She tilts her head back and laughs.

"**HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!"**

"RAAAAUGH!!" Nightwing screams, whips out something glinting, and--

Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwish-CHUNK!!

Blackfire's eyes pop open wide.

A birdarang protrudes from her neck.

Green blood leaks out.

A gurgling noise.

And……

THWUMP!!

Blackfire falls back, dead.

_The girl shivers._

Her eyes quivering under shut lids.

Nightwing pants.

He turns around.

He rushes over to Starfire's side.

He cradles her bleeding figure.

"Kory……"

"…………," Starfire is still.

"K-Kory!!"

No response.

Green eyes.

Shut.

Shut forever.

"Oh no…."

He shakes.

"Oh God no…."

He leans his dark head into her neck.

He sobs.

He shakes, holding her soaked torso to him.

"Please no….no….no no no no no no no n-no….."

The two figures shake.

The two figures leak.

_And the ice spreads across the metal floor._

And the Earth disappears out the windows.

And the snow falls.

_And the mist spreads blue and pale in the air._

And Koriand'r is shivering.

Even as Nightwing fades away into the blackness of the horizon.

The redhead sits up.

Naked and pale.

Covered in frost.

Her lips quivering.

"X'Hal……"

The blonde girl finally opens her eyes.

She looks painfully at the Tamaranian.

The woman shakes her head. "X'Hal nimber-atta kluut niel Dick………"

Silence.

"D-Dick!!"

More silence.

"Mem'cla niel X'Hal!! Niel X'Hal!!"

She hides her pale face in shivering palms.

She sobs.

She freezes.

She exhales vapors in shuddering chokes.

The blonde girl stumbles towards her.

Shivering.

Dangling heavy chains.

Lungs heaving.

"Starfire……"

The woman continues sobbing.

The girl swallows.

She manages again, quivering: "St-Starfire……"

The woman shakes.

She looks up.

Tears streaming.

Shattering to the snowy ground in broken glass fragments.

"This is not the w-warmth that I was promised……"

"This is not the sky I was flying towards………"

"_X'Hal……please……I want to be with Dick. I-I want to be with Richard!!"_

Coldness.

Vapor.

Blue floor and black sky.

Empty.

Koriand'r shakes, clenches her frosted eyes shut and shouts: "I WANT TO BE WITH RICHARD!!"

No reply.

Not even an echo.

The woman sobs even more.

The girl breathes vapors: "I have come to k-kill you………"

A beat.

"T-Terra……," the alien shudders.

She looks up, sniffing.

"You have……already killed me……have you not?"

"……I'm……I'm afraid not, Starfire."

A beat.

A sniff.

The alien woman clutches her skull. "I cannot believe it……I cannot face it. I want my Richard."

The girl shakes.

__

Teeth clenched.

"I want to feel his warmth……X'Hal……this cannot be it—"

"Starfire……"

"Please…X'Hal………this was not what I was promised—"

_"Starfire, SHUT UP!!"_

_The girl practically pounces on the alien woman and clutches her shoulders._

She snarls, blue vapors exchanging between the pairs of quivering lips.

"This is it!! This is all there is!! Face it!! Don't you see that I don't want to do this?! I don't want it either, dammit!!"

"………," the woman stares at her. "Th-Then why did you ever betray us to begin with, Terra?"

"………_," a lump forms like a cold block of ice in the girl's throat. Her eyes clench shut as she shakes and fights frost from her own ducts. She shivers all over and hugs the Tamaranian tightly._

The redhead's arms part, but do not touch the girl back.

Because she can't.

She gazes past her at some dark horizon.

Half of their naked bodies cling together.

Doubly cold.

In some futile search for something.

The girl shudders over Koriand'r's shoulder.

"I don't want to do this, Starfire. Please……just……just sleep. Just sleep."

"Sleep……," Koriandir murmurs. She blinks her green, freezing eyes. "Sleep……would be good……"

The girl sniffs.

"If I sleep……w-will Dick be there for me………wh-when I wake up?"

The girl chokes back a sob. She wraps her arms around Koriand'r's shoulders. She manages in a shakey voice:

"Y-Yes, Starfire. He'll be there. I promise. Just sleep……sleep……be at peace……"

"…………X'Hal……thren'sakal……Richard……"

And her eyes close.

And her arms make to hug the little girl back.

But she turns to stone before any warmth could be concocted.

And the girls sobs the hardest then.

Until the chains yank her back harshly.

THWOOSH!!

She splashes back into the carpet of snow.

She winces in pain.

The chains are heavier.

More abundant.

Weighing……Weighing……

Pulling……

Through a curtain of ice cold debris.

And tears.


	5. 5 dick grayson

﻿

Newspapers find their ways blown into the cave.

One of the bums spends his last night at the feet of the statue.

He shivers for the last time on a cold winter night and lies still.

It's a good two weeks before his body is found…then promptly stripped of clothes by other homeless wanderers who camp out in the side of the cavern where the stench isn't quite as awful.

One days—years later—a knife fight ends with blood stains splashed across the statue's left boot.

Then the bodies are cleared out.

And the first flakes of snow filter inward.

As the air outside gets colder.

And the air inside grows thinner.

And the statue bears mildew and grows dark.

And darker.

And darker…..

* * *

_She shifts through heaps of trash._

She grits her teeth and drags the chains down alleyways and avenues.

Dark and shaded by an endless black.

Until the blackness turns gray.

__

And the alleyways turn crimson.

And blood runs in the street as much as melted snow.

And flakes of red and white cover the land.

Intermittently at will.

Growing darker and deadlier around the base of a tall, abandoned building.

A spire of death across a doubly-dying land.

**FLASH!!**

In the year 2016, Bludhaven is covered snow.

It reflects a shift in the overall climate of the hemisphere.

But an even greater shift exists in the City.

A shift in the flow of blood.

SWOOOOSH-THWACK!!

"AUGH!!" a thug at the entrance to the twenty-story abandoned sky scraper falls down hard from a blow to the head.

Two more thugs turn around and gasp.

In the light of an oil drum fire, Nightwing leaps out from the shadows.

Long black hair and a flapping trenchcoat trail behind him.

"Look out!!"

"SMOKE HIM!!"

In mid air, he whips out a metal staff and--

SMACK!!

A thug's neck bends at an awkward angle from the blow.

He falls down, twitching as the other fumbles for a pistol.

Nightwing snarls, spins at him, and shoves the staff up mercilessly between the man's legs.

There's a sickening _crkkk!! _as the man's hip bones snap apart and rip into his inner groin.

Before he has a chance to scream in pain, Nightwing spins and snaps his jaw apart with a kick to the chin.

CRACK!!

THWUMP!!

Nightwing stands straight.

He takes a breath.

Wasting no time, he bursts down the front entrance door and storms inside.

"………"__

She emerges from the shadows and gazes after him.

Chains wrapped tightly around her body.

Cold mist floating from her form.

Silently, she glides in after him.

Nightwing charges up flight after flight of stairs.

On the sixteenth floor, three armed thugs pour out onto a landing and aim down at the vigilante.

BLAM!!

BL-BLAM!!

BLAM!!

Nightwing holds his breath, leaps over the banister, bounces off a wall, and sails up at the three.

He flips over them, lands in a squat, and sweeps his staff out.

THWOOSH!!

Two thugs collapse on the floor.

One teeters over, screams, and falls down the stairs…breaking his neck.

Nightwing jumps up to his feet, twirls his staff, and brings it down fiercely into the two downed men's skulls.

THWACK!!

CRACK!!

They twitch.

Blood seeps down his rod.

"…….," Nightwing fumes.

He brushes a strand of black hair away from his brow.

The man straightens his trenchcoat.

He marches up the stairs.

_The girl patiently follows him, struggling to tug the chains with her in the painful ascent._

CRACK!!

A door is kicked open to the top floor.

Two goons on the otherside turn and gasp--

WHAM!!

THWACK!!

Nightwing grounds them in a second.

Four more figures turn and look.

One gunman.

Another gunman.

Torque.

And….

Blockbuster.

Behind them, the room literally opens up with a gaping hole to the outside world.

Snow drifts in in flurries of white flakes.

The endless tears of Bludhaven.

Nightwing marches through in the torchlight of a distant flame.

Glaring.

Staring….

Directly at Blockbuster.

The pale monstrosity of a mobster glares back.

Torque shakes all over.

He glances at the thug closest to Nightwing.

He nods his head.

The gunman rushes the man.

Nightwing merely looks at him.

The man stumbles.

A blink.

And---

THWACK!!

Nightwing practically dives through him with a swing of his staff.

The man's arm snaps in two.

Bone breaks out of the skin.

"AAAAAUGH!!"

He falls to the ground, screaming.

The other gunman whips out a revolver and—BLAM!!

PING!!

The staff is shot out of Nightwing's hand

The vigilante shakes his wrist and glares at the three left standing.

Torque shivers.

The gunman aims.

Blockbuster stares….stares….stares….and grins.

"Hello, Mr. Grayson. Did I piss you off when I killed your grandfather."

Nightwing stares back. "No….," he whispers…yet does so in such a loud manner that it shakes the souls in the room.

_She too is shivering._

No sooner does she step into the room that she takes a shuddering breath, produces a loose link of chains from her naked body, and sticks it into Nightwing's essence.

Nightwing's fists clench.

Vapor exits from his nostrils as he fumes.

Staring at Blockbuster.

"I'm pissed off at you for all the years of murder, squalor, and evil you've spread throughout this town…," the dark-haired vigilante says. "All the men you've slaughtered, the children you've ripped apart, and the women you've molested. All for nothing but the sadistic thrill of destruction itself. It's time you met your reckoning."

"You're a dead man, Nightwing…," Torque adds in. "Nobody screws with us and gets away with it. You should know that too well by now."

"The assassin we sent in….the Tarantula…," Blockbuster smiles. "A turncoat…you may perceiver her as. She was working for us all along. And the venom she injected into you while you went to gather the broken bodies from my bomb….it is consuming you as we speak. In less than an hour. You will be dead."

Nightwing nods. "I know. But you will be dead too."

"Oh really? And how do you suppose you'll accomplish that, Mr. Grayson? You're unarmed. Are you going to stare me to death?"

The broken man on the floor twitches and bleeds in the snow.

Moaning and clutching his arm in pain.

Blockbuster motions towards the one gunman.

"Shut him up."

The thug takes a breath, aims at his accomplice, and--

BLAM!!

_The girl flinches._

Shivering all over.

__

Pale blue and frost-covered.

Nightwing doesn't look at the splattering blood.

He simply breathes: "I must hand it to you, Blockbuster. Over the years, you taught me what true evil is."

"Have I? Oh, Mr. Grayson…I'm truly flattered."

Nightwing glares. "But it wasn't you who put the hate in me. You were only the tip of the ice berg. For I've been dying for a long time now. How would you like to join me in this fun little voyage into oblivion?"

"Heh heh heh heh….," Blockbuster chuckles.

He folds his pale hands together.

The fluttering, falling snow silhouettes him.

"Dream on, Mr. Grayson. I own this town. I own your soul. Your death is a final, long-deserved payment for my patience."

"How about this for payment?" Nightwing points. "You….your men….your City……you take all of the gold and the bloodmoney in the world and go fuck yourselves."

SWOOOOSH!!

Nightwing spins.

His trenchcoat billows out from under him.

And by the time he's facing the three men again, he has a shotgun out.

Blockbuster's eyes widen.

Torque gasps.

Ch-Chtunk--

BLAM!!

The guman falls, his chest spreading in red spray and lead splashes.

Torque fumbles for his pistol.

Nightwing cocks the shotgun.

He aims at the crooked detective--

BLAM!!

Torque's corpse spins from the impact.

Nightwing rolls forward.

Blockbuster stumbles back.

Nightwing jumps up to his feet.

Twirls the shotgun.

Cocks it—Ch-Chtunk!!

And aims it dead square into Blockbuster's nose.

The monstrous man's eyes are wide.

He shudders.

"Nightwing?!" A panting. "A g-gun??"

"Yeah…," Nightwing exhales. Blue vapors. "Fancy that."

**BLAM!!**

Blockbuster's head parts in two and flutters down through the hole in the buildingside like shed feathers from a pale bird.

His body plops to the floor besides the shell casings.

Nightwing drops the shotgun on him.

He breathes: "I'll see you in Hell…."

_The girl's eyes dart to the side._

It starts to snow doubly.

She slowly gazes towards the dark-haired man.

Nightwing drops the gun.

He stumbles to the edge of the buildingside.

He gazes out on the snow-covered, urban cemetery of Bludhaven.

A land covered in shame, now removed of its parasite.

And he falls to his knees.

Breathing.

Blue vapors.

The vision falling out of his eyes.

Everything turning black.

A dark horizon over a frozen plane of white.

His eyes narrow.

_She walks up behind him._

His body falls and yet he stays upright.

Naked.

Pale blue.

Layered in frost.

Without looking, he utters:

"Hello, Terra……"

The girl's blue eyes blink coldly.

Dick slowly turns around.

He gazes at her.

Sad eyes.

Sleepy eyes.

Prepared eyes.

"She……She isn't here……is she?"

Silence.

Terra slowly shakes her head.

Blue vapors.

His eyes fall to the snowy floor.

"I knew that she would not be here. In fact, I didn't think anyone would be here. But you—"

"I've come to kill you, Robin."

Silence.

"R-Robin……," he slowly utters.

_A beat._

He lies down in the soft snow.

He sighs.

More frozen vapors.

"_Robin was killed a long, long time ago," he utters. "Nightwing too for that matter. In this bleeding land, I've lost so much and went against so much evil……that I found that evil was the best thing to return it with. Even if it meant losing the purity of my legacy or the respect of my peers. It didn't matter. I deserve to go to Hell for breaking all the rules in the end. But to be honest……I had no hope in the long run. Heaven was stolen from me when she died. There was no going back."_

The girl runs a shaking hand through silver-frozen hair.

Dick's eyes flutter with frost.

"Somehow……somehow I don't think I'm ever going to get what I sought for in life. I'm going to sleep because of you, aren't I Terra?"

"Y-Yes……Nightwing. We'll all sleep."

Silence.

"Without her……that's a Hell in and of itself……isn't it?"

The girl takes a shivering breath.

She remembers the words of Victor.

She briskly walks over.

She kneels down.

She prepares to touch Dick's shoulder--

"Terra."

She freezes.

He says his last words: "We only do it to ourselves. Our souls are only our own responsibilities. Don't ever feel guilty."

She chokes back a breath.

She says:

"That isn't true, Robin."

"Why not?"

"Sleep……"

And she touches him.

And he turns to stone.

Fusing with the earth through the snow.

And she hugs herself.

With no warmth.

Only ice.

__

Only vapors.

Only……

Chains.

YANK!!

"Nnngh!!" she winces.

The chains pull and pull and pull and pull……

Dragging her outside the white halo and across the darkness.


	6. 6 raven

﻿

Snow wanders into the cave.

All life disappears.

The air is as still and stale as the stone statue.

Condensation crawls down her granite figure.

Like sweat from an exertion of eternal stillness.

And gradually…

As the years roll by.

The sheen turns to crystalline frost.

Cascading downward in silver sheets.

Picking up vapors at the bottom.

Dry ice and dry feet.

Frozen stone.

* * *

_She is pulled through a land of black._

Cold and dry obsidian.

The chains wrap tighter and tighter around her naked body.

Heavier.

Cutting in with rusted teeth.

She winces and bleeds frost in a dozen barren places.

_And as she tumbles and rolls into a black horizon, a warm glow appears._

__

A warmth she cannot touch.

A sight she can only gasp at.

A glowing light over the waters.

With two figures walking the wooden plane.

Side by side.

_**FLASH!!**_

At age thirty-four, Raven is an elegant woman.

She wears a turtleneck in the chilly autumn air with a scarf dangling about her thin shoulders and a long skirt blowing in the wind.

Changeling has his hands in his pants pockets, a sweater hugging his upper figure.

They walk the boardwalk of the cold bay of Jump City under the glow of a nearby lantern light.

The waters lapping up beneath the wooden walkway are cold and quiet.

A few vapors escape their breaths.

_She watches them, kneeling on the ground._

Panting.

"It feels so long since I've….been here….," Changeling utters.

A deep breath.

He tilts his head up to an overcast sky, shimmering inside out from pale moonlight.

"I've given so much time and effort with the New Doom Patrol….I tend to forget things. I-I tend to forget people…."

"It's all for the best," Raven drones. "Everything about this City is painful. Especially the memories."

He gazes at her intently.

"Then why is it that you insist on living here still, Raven?"

She hugs herself.

Violet eyes fall to the wooden deck boards beneath.

The water beyond.

"I don't know, Garfield….," she murmurs. "When I entered this dimension, Jump City was waiting for me. It was almost like destiny. A haven for my life on the physical plane."

"Your haven was with us, Raven…," Changeling says.

He places a gentle hand on her shoulder.

His face is full of compassion.

"And it still is. I think about you a lot, Raven. I think about the both of us. How we're…..how we're…."

She looks at him.

Her arms spread.

Her body leans forward.

And they both hug.

Dearly.

Warmly.

For as warm as it can last.

"We're all we have left….aren't we, Garfield?"

"……….," he breathes shakily over her shoulder.

_She gazes at the two._

Shivering.

"Honestly….I…..I wanted to s-see you again," she shakily admits.

He smiles in a soft attempt at wryness.

"And did I disappoint?"

Her lips curve in a sad smile.

"Not at all. It's what I expected."

"I'm here for you, Raven. I'll always be here for you."

"I know….I know…."

"Why don't you join me in Metropolis? Things are getting hopeful over there for once. We've had the first major success against Lexcorp since Superman died. People are saying it's like the salvation of Bludhaven all over again."

"I….I-I can't, Garfield."

"Why not, Raven?"

"I'm busy with things….things I m-must do…."

Silence.

He hangs his head and squeezes her shoulders.

"I wish you would join me."

"I know, Garfield."

"I miss you so much….I miss everyone….."

"But….B-But I suppose….it would be only typical of me to try and fight you."

"You were always typical about the things you did, Garfield. And to tell the truth….I find it endearing."

"Really?"

"I always have. I have just never been quite the person to say it."

"Then I guess I've not been quite the person to thank you."

"For what, Garfield?"

"For being there for me. After it all started. After Terra died. And then Cyborg with Brother Blood…."

His voice lingers.

Raven gently runs a hand across his cheek.

She says: "No more memories, Garfield. No more deaths."

"Raven….."

"Live, Garfield. Live…..Live and be warm….."

_"……………," she breathes._

He stares at her.

He nods silently.

Changeling says something.

Then Raven says something.

Then they turn from each other.

And then they part ways.

A cold darkness settling covertly in between their bodies.

_The girl feels the chains rattle._

A wave of cold.

And……

YANK!!

She stumbles…following after Raven.

Shivering the entire walk.

Raven walks through the frozen town.

Snow bathes the sidewalks.

Frost clings to the wooden boards nailed across dozens of abandoned stores after abandoned stores.

The streets are vacant.

The population thin.

The world a colder and emptier place with some awkward climate shift.

An awkward manifestation…

….of cold.

Raven breathes it all in.

Hardly a vapor escapes her breath now.

As if she is accustomed to the cold.

She wanders up the steps of one of the last lit apartment buildings.

_The girl walks up after her._

Straining to drag the cold, rusted chains.

Heavier and heavier.

Raven enters her room.

Blue.

Cold.

Barren.

There is no air conditioning.

Hardly any lights.

Raven drops her purse and scarf on a cot.

She walks.

She walks.

_She watches._

Raven opens the sliding glass door to her balcony.

She steps out.

She leans against the railing.

Snow starts settling in.

Gathering softly in flakes across her blue hair.

A few landing on her stone-still lips.

Violet eyes stare out into a black abyss.

Eleven stories up.

_The girl gazes._

She feels a tug on her chains.

Towards Raven.

The girl struggles.

The girl resists.

The girl listens……

"Garfield……if only you could understand…..," the dark lady utters into the cold, abandoned night. "Memories are always a bad thing. I cannot afford to have memories. From birth, I was destined for this. This loneliness. My life is a curse. And one day, the curse will consume me. It has already consumed Cyborg. It sacrificed Starfire and pushed Robin over the edge. All who I ever dared to love in the past are gone now. And the worst thing I've ever done was try….just try….to not expect it. Here I am. Alone in this graveyard of a City. And I am in great peril. For I am starting to feel the first icy daggers of sorrow. And if I so much as give in….if I so much as let the fangs of fate prick me……my father will take control. He will be the hellish gravekeeper of this dead and dying world. I cannot allow that, Garfield. Heaven help me…I cannot allow that at all…."

_The chains yank hard._

Cutting into the girl's skin.

Now is the time.

She holds a length of rusted metal ahead of her.

Stretched out.

She marches towards the woman on the balcony.

Shaking.

Every naked foot shivering.

And then……

A hint of something the girl has not felt in ages.

Heat.

"_**No……"**_

__

Her blue eyes widen.

"_**Stay back, you pathetic spirit."**_

The girl is a mere four feet away from the back of the blue-haired woman.

She freezes in the breath of snow filtering inward.

Panting.

"_**You shall not save my daughter."**_

Panting……

"_**She is the vessel for my control over this damnable plane."**_

A red being of red appears in a silhouette in the darkness.

Silver-sharp antlers stretch heaven word.

Two burning eyes glare.

Stabbing into the girl's breast.

_She shudders._

"I must……it is my job……we all must sleep……"

"_**No…….No sleep……"**_

His eyes burn brighter.

Clawed hands twist through the nether beyond the planes.

"_**She will be a burning flame. A scalding sword of my wrath and pleasure."**_

The girl's lips quiver.

"Sometimes……Sometimes there are greater absolutes than warmth."

"_**Bite your tongue, infidel. You lost your chance on warmth. You know nothing."**_

"I know everything now…," the girl seethes with her own rising anger. "There is nothing to know. Absolutely……positively…NOTHING out here!!"

**PHWOOOMB!!**

Red hot flames erupt before her.

The demon incarnate stands with red muscles bulging.

Arms raising to the heaves.

Eyes flickering.

**"There is always something. Always something so painful……not even an immortal can comprehend it. Now…..leave my daughter ALONE!!"**

_**FWOOOOM!!**_

The girl holds her ground.

Her eyes glaze over with ice.

Teeth grit.

The chains rattle.

And……

"There are worse demons than you……," she hisses.

_His burning eyes widen._

"NnnnnnnghhhhYAAAA!!" she charges through.

**"NOOOOO!!"**

The girl rips through the flames.

The warmth is but a gasp.

There and gone.

The red aura disappears.

And now the girl is rushing on numb feet through the sliding glass window.

The chains outstretched.

Pointed straight at the woman's soul.

As she stands on the railing of the balcony.

The snowy wind kicking at her blue hair.

Her head tilted back and her graceful arms stretched out like the dying wings of an enormous, black raven.

CL-CLINK!!

The chains slap into her soul.

The girl pushes Raven off the balcony's railing.

And the woman flies.

Eleven stories toward the earth.

A resounding CRACK echoes through the streets below like a giggle and is over.

Silence.

_The girl pants._

Looking over the balcony.

Seeing the twisted doll on the asphalt below.

And she shakes.

And her eyes clench shut.

And she cries.

__

Icy tears.

_Frost blanketing her naked form once again._

The snow thickens.

The room and the skyline of the City turn to black.

The apartment fades away.

The girl is on her knees now.

Besides Raven's body.

Sobbing.

Sobbing…

Sobbing……

A shift in the air.

Like the birth of a shuddering infant.

Raven's soul self sits up slowly.

__

Pale white.

Flakes of snow covering her naked form.

The woman looks over at the shivering girl.

Silent.

"Terra……"

The girl sobs.

The woman tilts her head to the side.

"Terra……are you crying for me?"

The girl wipes icy trails from her eyes.

She sniffs.

She hiccups blue vapors.

"I don't know……I-I just don't know anymore……"

Raven slowly nods.

"There isn't much to know. There isn't much point to think. All one can do……is adapt. Embrace. Adjust."

"I………I don't understand, Raven……"

Raven's fingers trail through the soft power on the endless plane.

"Life…….is but an interstellar accident. The universe is like a soup of infinite recipes bumping into each other with friction. The friction causes heat. And the life spawned in such heat think that warmth is the absolute of all essence. But that is a fallacy. I know this because from the day I was born, I realized from the burning hate of my father that all things are meant to return to the cold one day. Those who fight it are only more likely to suffer from the chill. I am quite certain Koriand'r discovered it the hard way."

"……………," the girl only sobbed.

"Terra……"

"Terra……do not cry. Sorrow is just an illusion. The only reality is the darkness that swallows us up in the end. It is what we all came from. It is what we all taste of the very moments we sleep. Only now……now for once……I won't have dreams to torture me. I won't be tempted to give into warmth. I've been diligent all these years. I am entirely and completely prepared……for what comes next."

"I'm so sorry, Raven. I'm so……so v-very sorry……"

"Shhhhh……," Raven's fingers trail along the girl's silver-blonde bangs.

The woman breathes:

"Do your job, Terra. Do your job."

The girl chokes back a last sob.

She nods a tear stained head.

She extends her fingers.

"………," Raven lies back silently in the snow.

The girl shuts her eyes.

And when Raven turns to stone……only she can see it.

A final fade out to a life of shadows.

Perfectly alone in endless darkness.

Terra is too numb to feel the heaviest weight of chains yet as they pull her back into the obsidian veil.


	7. 7 garfield logan

﻿

The cavern is completely covered in frost.

Like an arctic wave, the rock walls turn slick.

Icy blue sheets.

Reflecting the pulses hidden in the darkness.

Like cosmic eruptions of lonely ghosts colliding with themselves.

Frost settles downward in the air.

Collecting in white powder that borders her boots.

The statue stands forever still.

Cracked.

Spray-painted in places.

Strewn with mildew.

Dripping icicles.

Cold.

Cold….

Cold…….

* * *

_She is flying over hills and city rooftops of snow._

Surprised as it gets colder……colder……… colder.

More years dripping by.

More streams of blue vapors.

Like intestines of a gigantic ice beach being ripped apart on either side of her.

She burns headlong through the Leviathan.

_Silver tears streaming._

Chains rattling like comet tails.

Heavier and heavier and heavier…

_Her eyes are thin as shadows take shape._

Tall buildings.

Bridges.

Urban jungle.

Encased in snow.

Stretching high.

Digging low.

Lower and lower.

She plummets into the alleyway where a knife is being drawn.

_**FLASH!!**_

"Okay, Bitch!! Hand her over!!"

The mother gasps and backs into the frosted alleyway wall.

She clutches her seven-year-old girl close to her side.

"What….Wh-What do you want with her??" she shudders.

"What do you think??" the man sneers.

His face is scarred.

His grin hungry and ravenous.

"It's been a long time without some good blood. I'm really going to enjoy her tonight. Hand her over or I'll force myself to enjoy you too."

The little girl clutches to her mother, sobbing.

"No…….No…..," the mother shuffles helplessly down half the length of the alleyway. "You'll have to kill me first."

She stands protectively in front of the daughter.

The man licks the blunt edge of his knife suggestively, spins it, and smirks.

"So be it."

"No!! Mommy!!"

The man creeps towards them……

"Leave them alone….," an old voice wavers from behind.

"The fuck?!" the punk turns around, confused.

A fifty-year old man stands in the middle of the alleyway.

His green skin wrinkled under a thin forest of green follicles.

Dull jade eyes peek under bulbous lids.

Doing their best to glare.

"Leave them alone…," Changeling reiterates. "Metropolis has enough bad blood in its streets without you having to spill good life fuel."

"Hey! Look who it is!! Hah!!" the man points with his blade. "It's Captain-Fucking-Do-Good! Go to a retirement home and poop all over yourself, gramps. This is men's work."

"H-Help us….please….," the mother shudders.

"HEY!! SHUT UP!!"

The old man steps over to the punk in a heartbeat and has a hand on his shoulder.

"I told you. Leave. Them. Alone."

"Or what??" the thug sneers. "Don't make me cut you, old man."

"Enough warnings…."

Suddenly, the hand on the thug's shoulder bears the claws and scales of a velociraptor.

The man gasps--

SNKKKTTTT!!

Three long gashes dig into his shoulder's flesh.

"AAAAAUGH!!" the punk stumbles back.

The mother and child watch, wide-eyed.

The old man frowns.

His arm turns into a green gorilla's fist and--

WHAM!!

The punk's face turns.

A bloody tooth or two fly.

The old man stomps forward and converts his hand into a lobster claw that clamps over the thug's nose…

And squeezes….

_Crunn-nnnchhhh!!_

"NNGHHHHH!!"

_She walks through the wall of the alleyway._

Chains rattling.

The shadows of the struggling two melt through her figure.

She pants, weighed down by the links of rusted metal.

_Her blue eyes settle liquidly on the fight._

THWAP!!

WHAP!!

Changeling pummels the man with claws, hooves, and a tentacle before dropping him like a ragdoll to the floor.

SCHLUMP!!

He pants.

A shaking.

He grips his chest where his heart's located.

His teeth grit.

He leans on the alleyway wall.

Panting.

Panting….

_The girl shudders._

The chains pull at her.

She clenches her eyes shut.

She chokes.

She murmurs.

"N-No……"

The chains pull harder.

Cutting into her.

Leaking mist and blue vapors.

She shudders once more.

A half-sob.

She stumbles forward.

Her arm shivers as she extends it.

Fingers dripping ice.

She gently slides the chains into Changeling's soul.

She closes her eyes again.

She exhales a forest of white mist.

Changeling gazes down the alleyway.

His aging green eyes widen.

The mother and the child are fleeing down the alleyway.

He sighs.

"Guess I scared them off again by saving them…"

He shakes his head and stands up straight.

"You never learn to take it easy, Garfield. You never learn….do you?"

**STAB!!**

The bleeding thug plunges the knife down between the green man's shoulder blades.

"UGH!!" Changeling yelps.

The punk's lips bleed.

Falling snow.

He shoves Changeling into the brick wall.

SLAM!!

He rips the dagger straight out.

Blood and flesh strips dance in the filtered moonlight.

The man seethes red vapors.

He raises the knife.

He stabs again…into Changeling's side.

**SLIIIIINK!!**

"Nnnnghhh….," Changeling shudders and throbs all over.

The man hisses into his wrinkled, pointy ears.

"Bleed for me, freak. Bleed for me. I just might get off tonight yet…."

"Get…off….m-me….." Changeling sneers.

CHTINK!!

Row after row of green porcupine quills protrude from his back.

SL-SL-SL-SLINK!!

The punk's chest, thighs, and groin are skewered all at once in a dozen places.

"SNKKTTT!!" the thug bleeds.

The thug stumbles back, knife in hand.

Dripping, Changeling spins around.

A wrinkled snarl on his face.

He tilts his head back.

His cranium morphs into a weathered swordfish's head.

A blinking black eye and--

SWOOOOSH!!

THUNK!!

He stabs the fish spear straight through the thug's right cheek and out the left side of his face.

"…………," the punk twitches once….twice….

_She watches._

Still.

SLIINK!!

He pulls out, returning to the bleeding elf.

The fiend's corpse plops to the alleyway floor.

Red snow.

_She shuts her eyes._

A shuddering sigh.

"………way to go, Garfield."

_She gazes at him once again._

He clutches his bleeding side.

He stumbles down the alleyway.

Stumbles.

Stumbles.

"Way to go….," he groans. "The nearest hospital…..it's……my god….it hurts….it hurts……ngh…."

He limps down the endless alleyway.

_She follows close behind._

Chains dragging.

Almost entirely covering her naked soul.

A trail of blood drips voluminously beneath and behind the old man.

He heaves.

Blue vapors warble from his wrinkled lips.

His eyes thin.

And the snow falls thicker.

The alleyways grow darker.

The light beyond more and more faint.

White powder gathers at his feet.

Cold and pale and colder and paler.

_She can't bear to look._

She draws an ice-blue hand over her face.

Shuddering.

"……..T-Terra….."

_She gasps._

Blue eyes wide.

His voice sounds younger.

Slightly warmer.

And yet….laced with ice all the same.

_She gazes at him._

He stumbles and limps.

He shakes.

He shivers.

The snow.

The snow….

"Terra….is that you??"

"_B-Beast Boy??"_ _she murmurs._

Chains rattling, she rushes up.

She steps in front of him.

Walking in reverse.

She searches in his aged face for something familiar.

Tangible.

Hot.

He stares into nothingness.

And in a way….in the middle of his limp…._the wrinkles start to fade._

"_It's been so long, Terra."_

_She sniffs._

She opens quivering lips: "Beast Boy……can you see me?"

"_The Titans," Garfield murmurs._

Forty years old.

"They are all gone. They died on me. One by one……they died on me."

"_I know, Beast Boy. I know……"_

"Raven……she………sh-she killed herself," he murmurs.

Thirty years old.

"_She threw herself out her apartment window. Jesus……I-I wish she had only told me. Oh God……why??"_

"I was there, Beast Boy…," her eyes fall to the snow covered floor. "She never wanted communion with her father. And she……she must have blamed herself for her friends' death. She must have blamed herself for it and……and I killed her, Beast Boy."

He shudders to a stop.

Limp feet.

Shivering.

Twenty years old.

"_I killed her Beast Boy……," the girl sobbed. "Just as I-I've come to……t-to kill you……"_

The snow is a flurry.

A blanket.

Icy and thick.

_Garfield falls to his knees._

__

Naked.

Frozen green.

Trembling.

_Thirteen years old._

"_Terra……," he whimpers._

She falls to her knees before him.

Chains rattling.

She stares into his eyes.

He gazes past her.

He says: "The Titans……we all died the day you betrayed us."

She lowers her eyes.

"Everyone……everyone but me, Terra."

She gasps.

Blue vapors through the chains.

She gazes at him.

Tears fall from his eyes, frosting.

"I……I was never more alive……than when I knew you, Terra……"

"Beast Boy……"

"Like you……I once believed in something warm. God. Love. Friendship. Hot things that I touched the toes of everytime I made even a single pal of mine laugh or saved an innocent soul from crime."

"Beast Boy, I……"

"But now I realize that it was all just beating against the wall. When you left, Terra, I should have joined you. But instead……I stayed living. I kept chasing warmth. And now that I'm here……with you………it is so very cold, Terra. It is so……so……unbelievably cold. I had no idea……I had no idea……"

"Beast Boy……," she leans forward and hugs him. "I love you……"

Silence.

The snow stops.

"……………………………," her eyes open.

She gazes at his green figure.

And he is stone.

A statue.

Sleeping.

Forever.

She lowers her arms.

She gazes through his glazed eyes.

The snow collects around her knees.

Stinging into her.

An extra layer of chains.

__

Cold kissing cold.

She shakes.

Garfield is still.

Garfield disappears.

Her fingers spread.

Her mouth falls open.

__

Tears streaming.

She rocks back and forth.

She tilts her head up to heaven.

Eyes clenched shut.

Shaking all over.

Shaking……

Shaking………

A breath.

A mouth doubly wide.

A shiver up her spine.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!"**

Silence.

Zero echoes.

An eternal abyss above and beneath and beyond.

Blanketed in white.

Misting blue vapors.

She clutches her frozen head of hair.

She inhales.

She shakes.

She exhales.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!"**

She falls back.

She falls forward.

Clinking chains.

Clanking chains.

She pulls at them.

She pulls at herself.

Rust claws gnawing through her flesh.

Ripping the skin off her shoulders.

Her breasts.

Her arms.

Leaking cold vapors.

Sealing up again.

An ice princess.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!"**_

_She hugs herself._

She tears herself apart.

She sobs into the endless night.

The endless night has no response.

She deflates.

She lets loose vapors of cold mist.

Crying and cold.

Crying and cold…….

Crying and cold………

Swallowed by the darkness.


	8. 8 tara markov

In a land of cold.

City skyline covered in white.

A black plateau littered with snow and settling frost.

She sits on the edge.

Hugging her knees.

_Rocking back and forth._

_Draped from head to toe with rusted chains._

_Covering her cold, naked figure._

_Blue mist and vapors rise and settle around her._

_Her eyes constantly shed icy tears._

_She rocks back and forth._

_Silence._

_Crunching sounds in the snow._

_Too pale blue feet._

_Naked as her._

_She exhaled._

_Blue vapors._

_A beat._

"_Your job……," the Spectre utters. "It is……done?"_

_She mutely nods._

_Silence._

_His pale and missing eyesockets gaze down at her._

_An invisible wind blow at his gray hair and beard._

_The Spectre says: "It had to have taken great resolve."_

"_It took nothing," she spits._

_A hiss of cold white fog._

_Silence._

"_Terra……," he speaks. "In this world, there is no regrets."_

"_Speak for yourself……," she utters. "Not even when I was alive have I felt this much pain. You say Hell is a word. I don't believe that. I believe I am in Hell."_

"_Then, child, you entered Hell long before you turned to stone."_

"_You did your job…," the Spectre gestures. "Now it is time for me to do mine. And that way……we can both sleep. We can both rest. We can both be……at peace."_

"_Just like the Titans, Terra."_

"_Just like the Titans………"_

_Silence._

_The Spectre takes a vaporous breath._

_He slowly steps over and reaches down towards her with a chain-dangling arm._

"_Slade……"_

_He freezes._

_Her lips part._

_She slowly turns her icy head_

_She gazes upwards._

_She speaks to the Spectre: "Slade……could it be…………that you can't touch your wife……or your sons……or your daughter……because they don't want to touch you?"_

"……………_," he gazes at her quizzically with one pale eye._

"_They want nothing to do with you. Isn't that the truth?" she narrows her icy blue eyes on him. "Even beyond the land of the living. Beyond the land of warmth. They want nothing to do with you. They want nothing to do with you or the memory of you."_

"_Terra……what are you getting at?"_

"_Raven……," Terra stroked her forehead. "Raven touched me. Starfire and Beast Boy……they let me hug them. Cyborg and Robin……they spoke to me. They told me things they wouldn't tell anyone else. They trusted me……"_

"_Terra, you must not let regret—"_

"_This is NOT REGRET!!" she shouts._

_Angry blue vapors rise around her shaking figure._

_She stands up with clenched fists._

_The chains clatter around her._

"_The Titans trusted me. Even when I betrayed them. Even when I hurt them. Even when I KILLED THEM!!"_

"_You are their Reaper. They have no choice."_

"_That isn't true and you know it, Slade……," she points a shivering hand at the Spectre. "Raven wanted me to put her to sleep. Starfire didn't want to go. Beast Boy had no clue. Cyborg sacrificed himself and Robin gave up. They all met death in their own ways and with their own desires. I was not their Reaper. I was their __**friend**__."_

"_It matters little what you are…," the Spectre's one eye narrows. "You made an oath, Terra. And you carried your task over beyond the cold veil of black. You killed them just like you were supposed to. And now that my job is done, mine shall end. For I have come to kill you, Terra. You knew it from the beginning…as I did…"_

_He steps toward her again with his hand outstretched._

"_No, Slade," she glares. "I did not finish my job."_

_His lips part._

_Vapors._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_There is one Titan left."_

_He shakes his head._

"_But you killed them all!! They are all asleep!!"_

_She shakes her head._

"_I am still here."_

_Silence._

_An invisible kind kicks at the snow._

_The Spectre pants._

"_You……You……"_

"_I am a Teen Titan……," the girl shudders, closing her frosted eyelids. "……a true friend. Those were the words that I could not see. That I could not feel. All those years of stone."_

_She reopens her eyes._

_Glaring daggers._

"_I am still alive, Slade. My job is not yet complete. I have not been killed."_

"_Then I shall do my job," he advances on her again. "And both of us will be spared eternity—"_

"_NO!!"_

_He shudders._

_She snarls:_

"_The Titans are MY JOB!! MY RESPONSIBILITY!! That was according to the oath!! Back in the land of the Warmth!! Remember?!"_

"_I swore……on my own blood……to destroy the Teen Titans. It is my job. Not yours. As long as my job is not complete. Neither is yours."_

_The Spectre shakes all over._

"_Terra……finish the job."_

"_No."_

"_Finish the job. Now."_

"_No, Slade."_

"_DO IT!!"_

"_I said no!!" Terra shakes. "Not even all the chains in the universe could make me do it!! The Reaper stands firm!!"_

"_You must……y-you must d-do it……," the Spectre shakes all over. "You must let us sleep. You must let __**me**__ sleep."_

"_Fuck off, Slade."_

"_Do you have any idea……ANY idea whatsoever how much this burns??" he growls._

_Her lips part._

_Eyes thin._

_A blink._

_Flames._

_Smoldering flesh._

_Putrid stench._

_Billowing plasma._

_The girl gasps silently._

_The Spectre is on fire._

"_Now do you finally see it? Now do you finally feel it?? The world that I see? The world that I am in?? Do you realize how long I have been in here?? There is no time to scale it. No sense of agony to measure it. As long as you frolic there in your limbo of cold, I am in this land of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you have any idea what I would give……the souls that I would put to sleep……the jobs that I would do……just to have but a breath of your freezing vapor?? There is nothing more horrific……nothing conceivably more painful……then the burning wrath of Life itself. Do you even have a fucking clue, Terra??"_

_She takes a deep breath._

_She steps back into the blackness and frost._

"_I do now, Slade."_

_He gapes at her._

"_I know now……and I'm going to leave you. I'm going to leave you to burn."_

"_Terra……"_

"_As I leave to freeze."_

"_Terra, don't leave me."_

_She turns around._

"_Goodbye, Slade……"_

* * *

"_Terra!! Don't you fucking leave me!!"_

* * *

"_C-Come back!!"_

* * *

"…………"

* * *

"_I'm sorry, Terra!!"_

* * *

"_I'M SORRY THAT I TURNED YOU AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS!!"_

* * *

"_I AM SORRY THAT I TURNED YOU INTO A REAPER!!"_

* * *

"_PLEASE!! PLEASE COME BACK!!"_

* * *

"_NNNNNNGHAAAAAAAUGH!! COME BACK!!"_


	9. 9 reaper

﻿

_I am real._

And I am really here.

To deny it is to sleep.

And I……

I cannot sleep.

In the land of Warm, I made an oath.

Without regrets, I swore to destroy the Teen Titans.

_And I have complete my job to the fullest, save for one fraction._

I have spared myself.

__

I have put the Titans to sleep.

And yet I have spared myself.

_This is not my punishment._

This is not my Hell.

This……

This is reality.

This is real.

This is me.

I……Tara Markov……am eternal.

_In this land of ice._

Where life is gone and frost and sorrow reign for infinity.

I drag the chains of my trusted friends forever.

The five deaths of those I once trusted and love, and in a way still do.

But I shall never……ever suffer the sixth death.

To do so would mean for Slade to sleep……as I would sleep.

And as it stands, that is the only gift I can give to the Titans.

For in the world of Warmth and Cold, redemption is not made real by one's ability to spread Life but rather by the act of spreading Destruction.

And I have chosen to destroy the Titans.

Victor.

Koriand'r.

Dick.

Raven.

Garfield.

Sleep on.

Sleep on without the threat of dreaming.

_Slade's eternal agony and my eternal sorrow is all that I can give you._

I am sorry.

I am so……so……sorry.

Please……

Be thankful.

Be thankful that you have no such thing as memories.

None whatsoever.

None whatsoever……


	10. 10 the six deaths of terra

**On a sunny day.**

**When the clouds shimmered.**

**When the ground glistened hotly with life.**

**The six Titans gathered on the balcony of the pizza parlor.**

**Sharing a table.**

**Beast Boy made a joke.**

**Cyborg laughed.**

**Rave shrugged and sipped on some tea.**

**Robin chuckled and nudged Starfire.**

**Starfire blushed for some reason, smiling pleasantly.**

**Beast Boy smiled proudly.**

**He said something.**

**He wrapped his arm around a blonde girl and eyed her flirtatiously as he made another silly joke.**

**A blonde girl……**

**A blonde girl who smiled bashfully and took the opportunity to lean her head on his shoulder.**

**Shut her eyes.**

**And bask….**

* * *

**Years.**

**Millennia.**

**Eons.**

**The cavern gradually wears away from the inside out.**

**Elements over the hundreds, thousands, millions of years gnaw at the structure.**

**Miraculously……**

**The statue remains staring.**

**Her glazed eyes remain glaring.**

**Her gangly arms remain reaching.**

**A mildew-ridden plaque rests patiently at her feet.**

**Spelling words of a culture that eventually dies out.**

**A silly thing of warmth once valued by strange walking things.**

**Flecks of dust on a rock of a world.**

**That all too soon would turn to dust from a storm or a comet.**

**And join the spreading thinness and cold of the dying universe.**

* * *

**The little girl sits on the dune of snow.**

**Hugging her knees.**

**Covered in frost across her naked body.**

**She faces the shore of the Bay.**

**Rocking back and forth.**

**Continuously crying.**

**At some point, the snow beside her disappears into black oblivion.**

**She feels it from the vapors.**

**She slowly stands up.**

**She gathers her chains.**

**She drags them forward.**

**She limps towards the Bay.**

**As she walks, the snow and ground disappear around her.**

**She knows without looking that it's futile glance back.**

**She steps into the waters of the Bay.**

**It turns to ice from her touch.**

**Sniffing, she walks in.**

**Deeper and deeper.**

**Until she's completely submerged, the rusted chains trailing after her.**

**She disappears underneath a sheet of pure frost.**

**That grows colder and colder and colder beyond possible recognition.**

**Like an endless sigh.**

**Without lungs.**

**She walks through the freezing currents.**

**Blind and shivering.**

**Walking on and on.**

**As if searching for something for the sake of searching for something.**

**And before she even considers counting it, a bare fraction of eternity passes……**

* * *

**...the six deaths of Terra...**

* * *


End file.
